Is Shonda Rhimes the most powerful woman in television?

If it’s at all possible that you don’t know who Shonda Rhimes is, it is likely that you are familiar with her work. She’s responsible for some of the highest rated television dramas of the past decade, including the medical juggernaut Grey’s Anatomy, its now cancelled spin-off Private Practice, the fast-paced Washington DC crisis management drama Scandal, and now, announced at this week's upfronts, the upcoming Viola Davis legal vehicle How to Get Away with Murder. This means that by fall, Shonda Rhimes will have her own three-hour block of primetime drama every Thursday night, which makes her one of the most powerful women in television.

Rhimes is incredibly prolific. She cut her teeth as a screenwriter (guess who wrote the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads), but also directed her own short films before becoming a producer. She’s been working non-stop since 1995 and her seemingly endless well of ideas gives her a lot of Hollywood currency. Not everything she does takes off – her pilot for period drama Gilded Lilys was not picked up as a series after it aired in 2012, ABC passed on the Rhimes-produced Issa Rae series I Hate LA Dudes last year, and Off the Map, a show Rhimes exec-produced, lasted only four months before it was cancelled – but by keeping herself involved in multiple layers of storytelling and producing, Rhimes manages to keep a full stable of powerhouse shows going year after year. Rhimes is big on pushing diversity, which not only gives us a break from the monotony of most primetime television, but allows for new and interesting talent to emerge. She loves to create feminist-leaning women, from the frank and gutsy Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy to the bold and direct Olivia Pope on Scandal. It’s refreshing to see Asian and African American characters front and center, given the same character development as their white counterparts.

FacebookTwitterPinterest

She also outshines her contemporaries on social media, and is a hilarious and exuberant tweeter, using the service to talk to fans (even though she regularly reminds them not to “bring her their crazy”) and drum up interest in her upcoming shows. Scandal saw a steady rise in ratings after Rhimes started throwing viewing parties on Twitter, encouraging people to use hashtags as they live-tweeted the show and even getting the cast involved.

Rhimes' imminent dominance of Thursday nights is no small feat considering how hard other networks are fighting to recapture the lost glory of the 'Must-See TV' years. The sneak peek of How to Get Away with Murder, starring the Academy Award-nominated Viola Davis, suggests it has the flavor of a procedural with typical Rhimes flare: hard-talking women in charge, pitting the best and brightest against each other, and, of course, a murder most foul.

Writing and producing three primetime TV dramas which air on the same night has to feel like a Sisyphean task at best, but Rhimes has surrounded herself with a great team, including longtime collaborator Betsey Beers. Clearly she does not feel the need to scale it back, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.